SIZE &
AGE - To 5 feet and 83 pounds. The oldest fish encountered in the early
study was 13 years of age based on scale rings. I aged a 72 pound white seabass
at 17 years using its otoliths. My guess is that they probably live to about 20
years. A just-legal sized fish of 28 inches total length is about 5 years old
according to scale aging.

REPRODUCTION - Spawning occurs from April to August peaking in May and
June.

Mature white
seabass are known to aggregate close to shore over rocky habitat usually near
kelp beds during the spawning season. Females probably spawn hundreds of
thousands to millions of eggs depending on the size of the fish. Larval seabass
develop in the plankton for about five weeks. Those few that make it to five
weeks settle to the bottom just outside the surf zone along open coast sandy
beaches when about one-fourth of an inch long. They remain in this nursery
habitat for about a year at which time they are about ten inches long. The
yearlings then begin to move around and can be found with older juveniles in
most shallow, nearshore habitats including reefs, kelp beds, harbors and bays.
About 50% of male white seabass are mature at about 24 inches (four years) and
50% of females at 28 inches (five years).

FISHERY - The sport catch by commercial passenger fishing vessels (CPFVs) peaked in
1949 at about 64,000 fish and has declined steadily ever since. An all-time low
of 284 fish was recorded in 1978. The sport catch from party boats averaged
1,400 fish per year from 1980 to 1991, which is only 2% of the 1949 peak in
sport catch